Tribulation of Myriad Races

“Of course it hurts. If it doesn’t hurt, how are soul devouring bugs supposed to kill cultural researchers?”

Bai Feng seemed to take joy in finally seeing his student suffer a loss. He said, “Now you understand why all those people make such a big deal on the extraction of the soul devouring bug racial ability? It is simply too painful. In the hands of warriors, wouldn’t defeating cultural researchers be much easier?”

“Just imagine this. You send your willpower over, trying to seal me or something. And then…hehehe. My source qi changes in nature and burns your willpower, causing you to wail in pain while withdrawing your willpower. I can then approach you and cut you down.”

Su Yu nodded.

Incredible. What a great idea. He should try using it. The next time Wan Mingze tried to seal him, hehehe, he would alter his source qi and burn Wan Mingze until that fellow cried for his mother before crushing that fellow with a kick. What an incredible ability.

“Teacher, you failed?”

“Yeah.” Bai Feng sighed, “These corrosive and burning properties are very troublesome. It’s too hard to create an outer layer for them. Any blood essence we try using as the skin can be easily destroyed by the imprint.”

Bai Feng was troubled, “This was why I had given up on this project previously. You’ll need to think of something yourself. I don’t have the time to waste on a small issue like this.”

Su Yu had a helpless expression. Was this a small issue? This was totally a big issue! But Bai Feng was too committed to his racial ability character project, so Su Yu had no choice but to work on this project himself.

Bai Feng was as irresponsible as ever. After a single demonstration, he said, “You can keep trying. Just follow the steps I showed you. As for the blood essence layer, you will have to think of a solution yourself.”

He tossed a jade talisman over and said, “This is my previous blood essence improvement method and the production method of the blood essence layer. Take a look at the data and try to come up with an improved blood essence layer suitable for the soul devouring bug ability. Consider this your entrance test.”

“Teacher, this is something even you have failed to create. Isn’t it too hard of an entrance test?”

“How is it hard?” Bai Feng rolled his eyes, “It isn’t hard. I simply can’t be bothered to waste my time working on it or I would have come up with a solution long ago. Just work harder. As my student, can’t you solve something so simple?”

Su Yu felt very helpless. Then, Bai Feng left and returned to his own room to resume his own research.

Su Yu started reading the data in the jade talisman while grumbling about something inwardly. The blood essence his teacher had experimented on…was supplied by him. What a poor teacher.

His teacher didn’t even have any research materials. His teacher was too poor. This was so infuriating. As a student, he was the one supplying the research material instead. This was too sad.

“Forget it. I’m magnanimous. I’ll earn money myself.”

Su Yu was gloomy, but at the very least, Bai Feng was not stingy in terms of knowledge. His teacher had taught him everything he should know.

…

Thus, Su Yu began a cycle of reading and researching. However, all his experiments had failed even after using several drops of soul devouring bug blood essence. But success was built atop failures, so he wasn’t worried about failing.

He was only troubled by the fact that he was out of blood essence. It was time to restock. He suddenly understood why Bai Feng had been experimenting on fire hog blood essence. Because that was cheap.

If he only wanted to practice, fire hog blood essence would be a lot better. It was no wonder the laboratory was filled with fire hog blood essence. So that was the reason.

Su Yu was hit by a realization. His teacher had so much fire hog blood essence because his teacher was poor. He couldn’t afford any other blood essence apart from fire hog blood essence.

Just look at the soul devouring bug blood essence. A single drop of Great Strength blood essence was worth three merit points. And that was already a discounted price given by Xia Huyou.

And Su Yu had wasted eight drops in no time at all. Just like that, he had exhausted 24 merit points for his experiments. He hadn’t even managed to peel a single imprint out of all those drops of blood essence. Sure enough, research was very expensive.

As for blood essence that he had experimented on, they could no longer be used. He could only keep them in the filter room. Without the imprint, Su Yu couldn’t even activate the Soul Devouring Art after he tried swallowing a drop.

Clearly, his book did not only utilize the energy in the blood essence. The imprint within the blood essence was also important.

“Ruined blood essence isn’t completely useless. At the very least, it has pure energy. No wonder I have been able to absorb some pure energy from the filter room. The energy is pure because the impurities have been peeled.”

Su Yu’s understanding of the Wentan Research Center was growing through these experiments.

…

Since he was out of blood essence, he had to look for Xia Huyou. When he left the laboratory, it was already the morning of the 5th. He was about to leave when he recalled something and hurriedly took a look at the mirror.

And he was shaken by what he saw. Just how many days had it been? A messy stubble had formed on his chin. His hair was also in a mess. Even his white outfit had turned into a black outfit. And he had heavy eyebags.

“Dang!”

Su Yu was alarmed. Wasn’t this basically Bai Feng number two? No wonder his teacher would look like this each time he left the laboratory. Su Yu hurriedly unleashed the power of all his acupoints and shook off every speck of dust from his body. The dark circles under his eyes also vanished.

His cultural weapon also appeared. Using the tiny saber, he shaved his stubble and gave himself a minor haircut. Finally, he changed into a new outfit. When he looked at the mirror again, he had transformed into a refined scholar. He was relieved to see that.

Appearances were very important.

Was he supposed to act like Zheng Yunhui and show an appearance that clearly belonged to a villain? He was Su Yu, a good and honest man. In the academy, who would say that he wasn’t a classy, refined, kind, and easy-going person?

…

Half an hour later.

Mental Tempering Garden. Within a small teahouse.

When Xia Huyou saw Su Yu, he hurriedly said, “You still dare to show your face? I thought you had been hiding out of fear! Are you not afraid that people will come looking for trouble the moment you show yourself?”

“What?”

Xia Huyou gave Su Yu a simple explanation of what had been going on. He said with a regretful tone, “It’s a pity that I’m not qualified to challenge you. Otherwise, I would have rigged a match with you and earn some money from this.”

Su Yu frowned, “Willpower text written by a peak Mountainsea cultivator? Zhou Mingren promised that?”

“I think so.”

“So anyone can get one by defeating me once? There are no limitations on the number of times a single person can defeat me?”

“Nope.” Xia Huyou shrugged, “You noticed, right? I noticed the same as well. Too bad I’m not even a top 90 student. Just being in the 89th place would be enough. We could have joined hands and set up a fake match…”

Su Yu rolled his eyes, “Even if you’re in the 89th place, you will only have a single challenge before my ranking drops out of the top 90. How are you going to continue challenging me after that?”

“You can challenge me after that and I’ll lose, letting you climb up again. I can then challenge you and earn another willpower text from them. We can keep doing this until they tell us to stop.”

Xia Huyou grinned, “This actually sounds like a great idea. What do you think? Do you want me to find you a partner to carry out this plan?”

“Are there no limitations put in place by the academy?”

“There is. Top 100 students are only allowed to issue three challenges per month unless they improve their ranks.”

Xia Huyou smiled, “In other words, as a ranked 71st student, if you fail in your challenge against the top 70 students three times in a row, you won’t be allowed to issue any other challenge for the month. But this limitation will not affect you since you guys will keep dropping and climbing in ranks.”

Su Yu smiled, “You sure are creative. But this is too scummy. And you might not be able to find anyone willing to do it. Everyone is afraid of death.”

“True.”

Xia Huyou nodded in agreement. Nobody would be brave enough to team up with Su Yu and do something like that. Who wouldn’t be afraid of being targeted by Mountainsea cultivators? Sure, Mountainsea cultivators wouldn’t be able to touch these students in the academy, but there were plenty of ways they could target a student without lifting a finger personally.

Su Yu smiled, “As the saying goes, the majority is beyond reproach. People might be afraid of offending the single character alone, but when there is a whole group of people, there is nothing to be afraid of.”

He shook his head with disdain, “Zhou Mingren and his lackeys have some really stiff thinking.”

Su Yu showed no fear whatsoever as he said, “I’ll be in the ring tomorrow. Those from the 89th to the 72nd place are allowed to challenge me freely. I will make sure each of them can get a victory against me. They can come according to their ranks. I will drop one rank at a time and help them get dozens of willpower texts from Zhou Mingren.”

“No, wait.” Su Yu muttered, “After I drop to the 89th rank, the ones with lower ranks will then be able to challenge me as well.”

He rubbed his chin, “Alright. I’ll allow everyone ranked below me to challenge me. Each of them can challenge me once. There are dozens of them so they stand to earn dozens of willpower texts from Zhou Mingren. And if they want more, I can climb the ranks after that before dropping again. They can just challenge me one at a time. We can keep doing this all day long. I refuse to believe the single character faction would dare to target so many students.”

Su Yu curled his lips, “This would be a good chance for me to gain more goodwill from my fellow students. And if that is not enough, I can simply drop out of the ranking. Who cares about the ranking? Outside the ranking, anyone in the Mental Tempering Stage can challenge me. Zhou Mingren did not limit the challengers to only those in the top 100, right? Oh my, I should really do this tomorrow! All Mental Tempering Stage students shall get a chance to challenge me and win a willpower text!

Su Yu grinned, “We have tens of thousands of Mental Tempering Stage students in the academy, right? All of them can challenge me. I will concede to all of them. Every single one of them will be entitled for a willpower text from the single character faction. What will the single character faction do?”